Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1066

Rh 1048 DIONYSUS. Into serpents, and himself into a lion ; lie filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes, so that the sailors, who were seized with madness, leaped into the sea, where they were metamorphosed into dolphins. (ApoUod. iii. 5. $ 3 ; Horn. Hymn. vi. 44 ; Ot. Met. iii. 582, &c.) In all his wanderings and travels the god had rewarded those who had received him kindly and adopted his worship : he gave them vines and wine. After he had thus gradually established his divine nature throughout the world, he led his mother out of Hades, called her Thyone, and rose with her into Olympus. (Apollod. /. c.) The place, where he had come forth with Semele from Hades, Avas shewn by the Troezenians in the temple of Artemis Soteira (Paus. ii. 31. § 2) ; the Argives, on the other hand, said, that he had emerged with his mother from the Alcyonian lake. (Paus. il 37. § 5; Clem. Alex. Adm.ad Gr. p. 22.) There is also a mystical story, that the body of Dionysus was cut up and thrown into a cauldron by the Titans, and that he was restored and cured by Rhea or Demeter. (Paus. viiL 37. § 3 ; Diod. iii 62 ; Phurnut. N. D. 28.) Various mythological beings are described as the offspring of Dionysus ; but among the women, both mortiil and immortal, who won his love, none is more famous in ancient history than Ariadne. [Ariadne.] The extraordinary mixture of tradi- tions which. we have here had occasion to notice, and which might still be considerably increased, seems evidently to be made up out of the tra- ditions of different times and countries, referring to analogous divinities, and transferred to the Greek Dionysus. We may, however, remark at once, that all traditions which have refer- ence to a mystic worship of Dionysus, are of a comparatively late origin, that is, they belong to the period subsequent to that in which the Home- ric poems were composed ; for in those poems Dionysus does not appear as one of the great divi- nities, and the story of his birth by Zeus and the Bacchic orgies are not alluded to in any way : Dionysus is there simply described as the god who teaches man the preparation of wine, whence he is called the " drunken god " (/iaji/J/ieros), and the sober king Lycurgus will not, for this reason, tolerate him in his kingdom. (Hom. //. vi. 132, &c., Od. xviii. 406, comp. xi. 325.) As the cul- tivation of the vine spread in Greece, the worship of Dionysus likewise spread further ; the mystic worship was developed by the Orphici, though it probably originated in the transfer of Phrj'gian and Lydian modes of worship to that of Dionysus. After the time of Alexander's expedition to India, the celebration of the Bacchic festivals assumed more and more their wild and dissolute character. As far as the nature and origin of the god Diony- sus is concerned, he appears in all traditions as the representative of some power of nature, whereas Apollo is mainly an ethical deity. Dionysus is the productive, overflowing and intoxicating power of nature, which carries man away from his usual quiet and sober mode of living. Wine is tlie most natural and appropriate symbol of that power, and it is therefore called "the fruit of Dionysus." {Aiovvaov KafnrSs ; Pind. Frafjm. 89, ed. Btickh.) Dion3'sus is, therefore, the god of wine, the in- ventor and teacher of its cultivation, the giver of joy, and the disperser of grief and sorrow. (Bac- chyl. ap. Alhen. ii. p. 40 ; Pind. Fragm. 5 ; Eu- DIONYSUS. rip. Bacch. 772.) As the god of wine, he is also both an inspired and an inspiring god, that is, a god who has the power of revealing the future to man by oracles. Thus, it is said, that he had as great a share in the Delphic oracle as Apollo (Eurip. Bacch. 300), and he himself had an oracle in Thrace. (Paus. ix. 30. § 5.) Now, as pro- phetic power is always combined with the healing art, Dionysus is, like Apollo, called iarpos, or vyt- oTTjs (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1624), and at his oracle of Amphicleia, in Phocis, he cured diseases by revealing the remedies to the sufferers in their dreams. (Paus. x. 33. §5.) Hence he is invoked as a Seds (twttjp against raging diseases. (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 210 ; Lycoph. 206.) The notion of his being the cultivator and protector of the vine was easily extended to that of his being the protector of trees in general, which is alluded to in various epithets and surnames given him by the poets of antiquity (Paus. i. 31. §2, vii. 21. § 2), and he thus comes into close connexion with Demeter. (Paus. vii. 20. § 1 ; Pind. hthm. vii. 3 ; Theocrit. xx. 33 ; Diod. iii. 64 ; Ov. Fast. iii. 736 ; Plut. Quae^t. Gr. 36.) This character is still further developed in the notion of his being the promoter of civiliza- tion, a law-giver, and a lover of peace. (Eurip. Bacch. 420 ; Strab. x. p. 468 ; Diod. iv. 4.) As the Greek drama had grown out of the dithyrambic choruses at the festivals of Dionysus, he was also regarded as the god of tragic art, and as the protec- tor of theatres. In later times, he was worshipped also as a S^eds x^<^**» which may have arisen from his resemblance to Demeter, or have been the result of an amalgamation of Phrj'gian and Lydian forms of worship with those of the ancient Greeks. (Paus. viii. 37. § 3 ; Arnob. adv. Gent. v. 19.) The orgiastic woi-ship of Dionysus seems to have been first established in Thmce, and to have thence spread southward to mounts Helicon and Parnassus, to Thebes, Naxos, and throughout Greece, Sicily, and Italy, though some writers derived it from Eg}'pt. (Paus. i. 2. § 4 ; Diod. i. 97.) Respecting his festivals and the mode of their celebration, and especially the introduction and suppression of his worship at Rome, see Diet, of Ant. s. vv. Aypiwi'ia, 'AudfaTT^pia^ 'AAoia, Aicipa, and Dionysia. In the earliest times the Graces, or Charites, were the companions of Dionysus (Pind. Oi. xiii. 20 ; Plut. Qiiaest. Gr. 36 ; Apollon. Rhod. ir. 424), and at Olympia he and the Charites had nn altar in common. (Schol. ad Find. 01. v. 10 ; Paus. V. 14 in fin.) This circumstance is of great interest, and points out the great change which took place in the course of time in the mode of liis worship, for afterwards we find him accompanied in his expeditions and travels by Bacchantic women, called Lenae, Maenades, Thyiades, Mimal- lones, Clodones, Bassarae or Bassarides, all of whom are represented in works of art as raging with madness or enthusiasm, in vehement motions, their heads thrown backwards, with dishevelled hair, and carrying in their hands thyrsus-staffs (entwined with ivy, and headed with pine-cones), cymbals, swords, or serpents. Sileni, Pans, sa- tyrs, centaurs, and other beings of a like kind, are dso the constant companions of the god. (Strab. x. p. 468 ; Diod. iv. 4. &c. ; Catull. 64. 258 ; Athen i. p. 33 ; Paus. i. 2. § 7.) The temples and statues of Dionysus were very numerous in the ancient world. Among the sa-